The Political Art of Not Being a Scientist

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is one of many prominent Republican politicians who prefer to say “I’m not a scientist” as they avoid specific policy positions on climate change and global warming. Even so, the allegedly unwritten policy of his administration for the past four years has been a ban on the use of those very terms — “climate change” and “global warming” — by state environmental officials, according to an investigative report published Sunday in the Miami Herald.

“That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the office of general counsel,” Christopher Byrd, a former attorney in the state environmental agency, told Tristram Korten of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Mr. Korten’s report in the Herald was based on record comparisons finding sparse use of those terms during Mr. Scott’s tenure, and interviews with former state workers and consultants. Kristina Trotta, another former employee, declared, “We were told that we were not allowed to discuss anything that was not a true fact.”

In his campaigning before voters, Mr. Scott stated, “I’ve not been convinced that there’s any man-made climate change.” But he insisted this week in response to the Herald report that he had no unwritten policy quietly putting his skepticism to work at Florida’s environmental agency. “It’s not true,” he declared.

“I’m into solutions,” he said, citing state investments against beach erosion, for flood mitigation and in defense of the Everglades. As for the science underlying it all, the Herald reported the governor would not say in response to repeated questions whether the environmental agency considers global warming a proven problem.